Number 10: Xenogears
Yasunori Mitsuda. If you understand game music at all you've been waiting for his appearance on this list, because any acknowledgement of gaming soundtracks that didn't include him would by default be a complete failure. Mitsuda is largely famous in most gamers minds for two reasons. First, he has composed some of the best loved soundtracks out there, earning him international regard as one of the most accomplished game soundtrack composers. Second, he is so dedicated to his music that he puts himself into the hospital almost every time he composes anything.
That may be why there isn't as much of his work as most other composers.It's sort of hard to create a large number of works when most of them take so much out of you that you end up ill. Even so, it's a telling statement about the quality of his work and what he puts into it.
Xenogears is one of Mitsuda's earlier works, not that that really matters when it comes to his compositions. Unlike most other soundtracks produced at the time by the parent company Squaresoft which tended to play fairly close to the classical orchestral sound (or as close as they could with the limitations of the day), Mitsuda instead modeled Xenogears after Celtic music, something that, in my opinion, we don't see enough of.
Oddly enough however, when it comes time to actually talk about Xenogears soundtrack, I don't have much to say. It's simply an all around great soundtrack. It scores high in every category standard for the top 25. I honestly can't say much more on it. It's excellent. It's varied. You should listen to it immediately.
Xenogears
Enjoyment: 4.25
Stand Alone Quality: 4.5
Composition: 4.25
Emotional Reaction: 4
Game Representation: 4.5
Non-Gamer Enjoyment: 1
Nostalgia: 1
Total: 4.7
My lack of ability to say anything on it apart from how good it is aside, Xenogears is a great example of why people listen to game music in the first place. That said, it well deserves its placement at number 10 this year.
Number 10--Xenogears by Yasunori Mitsuda
1 comment:
Xenogears is an amazing game. To be honest, when I played it the music didn't stand out to me, but then again now that I think about it, that's because everything about this game is amazing and it just fits with it. Love this game, and the music fit it perfectly.
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